Lawyer Val Wachtel gave the defense perspective on premeditation, a week after this post gave a prosecutor’s view.
In his closing statements for his client, Eric Martinez, Wachtel told the jury:
“Prosecutors like to say premeditation is like what deciding what to wear in the morning. But I think premeditated murder requires more work than what tie to put on in the morning.”
Murder is easy to understand. But premeditated murder? Prosecutors say premeditation can be difficult.
It can especially be confusing since Kansas law doesn’t specify exactly how long someone has to think an action over before it becomes premeditation. It can’t be an instant before, but courts say you don’t have to think it over long.
Ann Swegle, deputy district attorney for Sedgwick County gave the best description of premeditation I’ve heard in her closing arguments of the Reginald Johnson murder trial.
“We premeditate all the time in our lives – we just don’t call it that,” Swegle told the jury. “We plan what we’re going to wear to work. We plan what we’re going to eat, at some point, before we eat. This morning, I decided I wanted another cup of coffee. It didn’t take me long. I just walked over to the coffee pot.”
The jury convicted Johnson of first-degree murder – premeditated.